The clarion., 1887-09-28
For THE CLARION.
PLUS CAPITAL-LAB0R MINUS.
BY DE-. j. W. HARMON.

Numerous writers on the anatomy of
political economy have wearied us with
lessons on labor and capital, commerce
and tariffs, high prices and low prices,
and speculations in general, on trade. :.
| And while society, communities and
governments are on perpetual strain
over these subjects, they present US,
ever and anon, with their political nos
trums as a panacea. Is it possible that
no bright and sunny days of perfect rest
will ever come to cheer and tighten the
great mass of our work-day popula-
| ton?
Is the ship of our common humanity
to be all the while tossed on stormy seas
of strife and uncertainty, never to cast
anchor in some peaceful harbor, and
| have real jubilee of song and sweet re-
| pose?
viii the causes of this disturbing and
disrupting element, that has been rolling
its white capped, crested billows over
society for 10 these many centuries,
never cease, and under the master voice
of some wise statesmen lay themselves
down to rest?
Must this overcoming problem OF
labor and capital, this vexed question of
the rich and poor, forever rdL the plow-
share of discomfort through the govern
ments of this world, turning up to the
gaze of the beholder the most noxious
and disgusting elements OF humanity
And if no statesman of clear, COM
manding brain-power comes upon the
troubled theatre of action as deliverer,
must this vexed condition, of capital
and labor, become chronic, and take
such hold upon the body polite that
it will never let go its grip?
Must the pound of flesh be cut out
without any regard to the quantity of
blood that follows the knife or the value
of lives endangered? Why should there
be this everlasting antagon'sms, these
strikes, and these dislocations of manu-
featuring and financial interests that
jars and unsettles social life?
If labor is the foundation, and the
very bed rock of all true wealth, and the
head source of financial accumulatlons,
and the prosperity of any country, then
why do not the nimble and busy hands,
who create all the wealth, and pile up
their millions, receive a fair and lucra-
tive portion, and enjoy it with hearty
zest
Upon what true political or financial
economy is it, that the men and classes,
who do not labor, accumulate all the
wealth, while the real hard handed
laborer, who creates the wealth, barely
gains a subsistence?
Like the ingenious inventor, the other
day, who obtained patent for greatly
reducing the friction on journals and
axles and machinery, over one-h9lf, why
not some clear minded and bralny man
in the halls of legislation discover a po-
litical patent that will take off the labor
friction just at this point, so that the
real laborer of mind or body, who Gre
ates the wealth, or the means to increase
wealth, may retain goodly portion OF
that wealth which his labor has actually
created?
This is the problem of the age, and
seeks solution; and when some states
man, who can lift himself up above the
selfish rut of politics, and discovers this
happy solution, he will send out to the
governments, and States, and cities OF
this world, the greatest and grandest
peace-maker ever introduced into poll
tics, legislation or law.
1t is an unquestioned fact that a
small minority possess the great body or
sum of the wealth created by the labor
of the many; and the whole trend OF
legislation is to increase the vast ac-
cumulations of the few.
The majority of mankind are groan-
ing in mind and body, and are struggling
with dire necessity for meat and bread
and while the uplifted hands and arms
of widows and orphans are seen and
heard crying out, SIS there no help for
the widows son7'' with what partial and
stinted means are they supplied from
the plethoric bags and Golfers OF the
ricl.
Another strange feature of the case:
Does this wealth gravitate to the itch
on account of their magnetic worth of
character, as well as their wisdom, in
dustry, generosity and great virtues
And does poverty become the heritage
of the poor on account of their worth
lessness, ignorance, idleness and vice?
This does not account for the vast diff
ference and discrepancy; for the appli-
cation of a severe logic, and the dissect-
ing scalpel of truth and the revelations
it brings to the light of observation,
forces us altogether to a different con-
clusion.
If labor be the great undergirder of
States and governments, as well as the
central pillar that upholds the whole
system OF wealth, and the non-laborers
become rich, while the real laborer who
is the source, and the creative genius of
wealth remains poor, and struggling Tor
bare existence, then the conclusion
seems almost irresistible, that the entire
fabric cf legislation, and the business
of the world carries within it an element
of iniustice and wrOngdOing.
There must be sad misapprehension
and a terrible misadjustment somewhere,
of mans relation to his fellow-men, and
if the teachings of the Divine Master
were only needed by the dwellers on this
earth. we would not now be hunting for
the dead fly in the ointment.